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Install Microsoft Report Builder

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Applies to: SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services and later Power BI Report Server

Microsoft Report Builder is a stand-alone app for authoring paginated reports, installed on your computer by you or an administrator. An administrator typically installs and configures Reporting Services, grants permission to download Report Builder from the web portal, and manages folders and permissions to reports and shared datasets saved to the report server. For more information about Reporting Services administration, see Reporting Services Report Server (Native Mode).

There are different ways to install Report Builder.

Your administrator can install Report Builder with Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager.

And you can install it from several places:

Note

Are you looking for Power BI Report Builder instead? Head to the Microsoft Power BI Report Builder page on the Download Center.

System requirements

See the System requirements section of the Report Builder download page on the Microsoft Download Center.

Install Report Builder with Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager

An administrator can use software such as Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager to push the program to your computer. To learn how to use specific software to install Report Builder, consult the documentation for the software. For more information, see Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager documentation.

Important

Windows Vista and Windows 7 security features require elevated permissions to run command line operations and will prompt for permission to run the command line. The installation is not silent. To make the installation silent, you need to run the command line as an administrator.

Install Report Builder from the web portal

Note

You can install Report Builder from a SharePoint library integrated with Reporting Services through SQL Server 2016.

You can start Report Builder from a Reporting Services web portal or a SharePoint site integrated with Reporting Services. For information, see Start Report Builder.

SharePoint site integrated with Reporting Services

On a SharePoint site integrated with Reporting Services, if the New Document menu does not list Report Builder Report, Report Builder Model, and Report Data Source, their content types need to be added to the SharePoint library. For more information, see Add Reporting Services Content Types to a SharePoint Library.

Install Report Builder from the download site

  1. On the Report Builder page of the Microsoft Download Center , click Download.

  2. After Report Builder has finished downloading, click Run.

    This launches the SQL Server Report Builder Wizard.

  3. Accept the terms in the license agreement and click Next.

  4. On the Default Target Server page, optionally provide the URL to the target report server if it is different from the default. Click Next.

    Note

    If you plan to work with Report Builder when it is connected to a report server, it is convenient to provide the URL to the server at this time. You can also do this from the Options dialog box in Report Builder.

  5. Click Install to complete the installation of Report Builder.

Install Report Builder from a share

  1. Contact your administrator for the location of ReportBuilder.msi that you run to install Report Builder on your local computer.

  2. Browse to locate ReportBuilder.msi, the Windows Installer Package (MSI) for Report Builder, and click it.

    This launches the SQL Server Report Builder Wizard.

  3. Complete rest of the steps in To install Report Builder from the download site.

Install Report Builder from the command line

You can also perform a command line installation of Report Builder and provide arguments to customize the installation. In addition to the standard MSI intrinsic parameters, you can use the custom parameters that Report Builder provides: RBINSTALLDIR and RBSERVERURL. RBINSTALLDIR specifies the root installation folder for Report Builder. RBSERVERURL specifies the default report server that Report Builder uses to save reports on the server.

If you want a completely silent installation, with no user interface interaction at all, specify the /quiet option. By design, the quiet option flag suppresses installation errors. It is therefore recommended that you include the /l option, which specifies logging, when you use the quiet option.

  1. On the Report Builder page of the Microsoft Download Center, click Download.

  2. After Report Builder has finished downloading, click Save.

  3. On the Start menu, click Run.

  4. In the Open box, type cmd.

  5. In the Command Prompt window, navigate to the folder where you saved ReportBuilder.msi.

  6. Type a command with the following format:

    msiexec /i ReportBuilder.msi OPTION=OptionValue [OPTION=OptionValue]

    The two options specific to installing Report Builder are: RBINSTALLDIR and RBSERVERURL. You don't have to include these arguments in the command line. The following is the baseline command:

    msiexec /i ReportBuilder3_x86.msi /quiet

  7. To run the command, press ENTER.

Set Report Builder defaults

  • After you install Report Builder, you can set some default options. Click File > Options.

    Setting the default Reporting Services web portal or SharePoint site is the most useful. For more information, see Set default options for Report Builder.

  • Click Report Builder .

    If you don't see the report server in the list of existing servers, close the Open Report dialog box and then click Connect at the bottom of Report Builder to connect to the server.

See Also

Start Report Builder
Uninstall Report Builder